Mobile terminal for displaying a rich text document comprising conditional code for identifying advertising information stored locally or on the internet

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for transmitting advertising information to a mobile terminal over a first connection during a synchronization session and storing the advertising information in a local memory of the mobile terminal. A rich text document is transmitted to the mobile terminal over a second connection, wherein the rich text document comprises conditional code comprising advertising display criteria including a first identifier for retrieving selected advertising information stored in the local memory of the mobile terminal and a second identifier for downloading the selected advertising information from the Internet.

Description

[0001]This application is a division of 09 / 848,797 filed on May 4, 2001.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to mobile terminals. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile terminal for displaying a rich text document comprising conditional code for identifying advertising information stored locally or on the Internet.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]Mobile terminals, such as handheld computers, cellular phones, tablet computers, etc., may be used to view rich text documents, such as web pages from Internet web sites, email messages with embedded images, and PDF files. The mobile terminal may be used to view rich text documents downloaded from the Internet directly, or that have been cached in the local memory of the mobile terminal during a synchronization session. FIG. 1 shows a prior art configuration for synchronizing a mobile terminal 2 to a target computer 4 over a direct, wired connection 6 (...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, the web pages stored in the mobile terminal 2 may eventually become outdated and need to be refreshed through another synchronization session with the target computer 4.

In either case the bandwidth of the communication channel is typically much less as compared to the bandwidth of the direct, wired connection as in FIG. 1, thereby increasing the latency in accessing the data as well as decreasing battery life.

Thus, bandwidth is consumed to transmit the banner ads to the mobile terminal during a remote synchronization or wireless browsing session even though a majority of the time the user will not click on the banner ads.

Yet another drawback associated with banner advertising is the delay associated with downloading the banners from banner servers.

However, the banner servers are often saturated with thousands of requests to serve banners, thereby delaying the transmission of the web page to the user.

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